Vocab Coding (VoCode) Activities to Use with Any Coding Robot
I really enjoy finding ways to integrate academic content when using Coding Robots. What a great way to see students SO engaged while learning! These activities can be used with any moving bots, such as the Code and Go, Bee Bots, BOLT by Sphero, Dash and Dot, Botley, Code-a-Pillar, etc. To see my recommendations list for Coding Robots for the classroom, head to my Amazon List and look at the Tech Toys section.
A Brief Overview of Coding Concepts
Coding with students is really just like sequencing. The vocabulary is a little different because we are using math and computer science terms instead of language terms.
For example, a coding sequence, when put together, creates an algorithm that the computer understands as a program. In real life, a sequence is a set of instructions or steps that WE (instead of a computer) understand.
Basically, we are asking our students to be computational thinkers – to think like a computer.
Just like with the sequence of a story, if any of the steps are missing, the story is incomplete.
With coding, once the program is run, (the programmer presses start) the computer will go through the whole sequence (algorithm) without stopping. If there is a mistake (bug) in the algorithm then the end result will be wrong.
How to Use Vocab Coding with any sets of vocab
The most straightforward way to use these activities is to have students program their bot to go to one term at a time.
To add a challenge, give students multiple stopping points for their path.
This might mean choosing 5 cards from the pile and that is the order in which they need to write their program.
Add levels of complexity by requiring students to program in “jumping over” pieces or spaces, and “collecting” and “discarding” the pieces they picked from the pile.
Due to the factor of choice in these activities, there are no answer keys. Have students check each other.
We call the “path of destruction” our way of checking our answers!
No Bots? No Problem!
You can have students act as the robots or you can use the No Bot option included in the sets.